There are podcasts on every subject matter these days, including arts and entertainment, cooking, crafts, literary, politics, pets, sports, wine and more. Pick a category and you’ll likely find a podcast.
True crime podcasts are among the most popular, which is why Nashville television station WSMV4’s investigative team led by Jeremy Finley has decided to broaden its reach by expanding into the ever-growing podcast field.
The station’s first podcast that dropped on the flooding crisis in Tennessee. The second, Monster Coming Out, was about an alleged serial killer who was abducting women. It recently won a regional Emmy in the news special category as well as the prestigious Edward R. Murrow regional award for best podcast.
“So that was very cool,” says Finley, who shared the recognition with executive producer Meredith Whittemore and photographers Jason Finley and Jeffery Bishop. “What we have found is that true crime is huge in podcasting, so we are now turning so many of our crime investigations for television into podcasts for true crime,” Finley says.
“While we are a television station, we know people are getting their information on podcasts, documentaries, on YouTube, on social media. So we are purposely going to the places where the audiences are now. And one of them we know is podcasts,” Finley explains.
“What we have done with my investigative unit, is when we come upon a topic that we realize pretty quickly, ‘hey, this could make a great podcast.’ we will work on it for television. And then we will keep all the raw audio (for the podcasts).”
Finley says he is fascinated by true-crime podcasts, not only as an investigative journalist but personally.
“All I can say is that for me, it is a passion of mine. I’ve always been enthralled with the human experience in crime,” he says. “It takes us as people in an experience that we’re not familiar with. It is dramatic. It is thrilling. It is oftentimes a victim overcoming what they’ve experienced, which we all I think can identify with stories of overcoming. A terrible experience.
“I think that there is a So, genuine interest in just the thrill of true crime. … People can’t get enough of it.”
Chattanooga-based true crime podcaster Kenzi Durbin has a theory about when the streaming phenomenon’s popularity really took off with listeners.
“When COVID happened in 2020 and we were all kind of shacked up in our houses, that’s when I noticed podcasts started taking off,” says Durbin, who launched her second podcast, Inside the Case, May 20.
“Podcasts have really given people the opportunity to have a voice. It is very easily done, to be able to start your own podcast. I picked up a $20 mic off Amazon, I had a laptop and I started my original podcast for free.
“I think the reason that podcasts are so popular nowadays, whether from listening to them or hosting them yourself, podcasts are a huge way for people to be able to have an outlet and to be able to have a voice on a much easier scale than other forms of media entertainment.”
Recent data posted on Statista.com finds the number of U.S. podcast listeners rose from nearly 49.5 million in 2020 to 68.85 million last year. Projections forecast a jump to 76.38 million listeners in 2024 and nearly doubling to more than 113 listeners by 2029.
“We got started at a really good time. We got started in 2017 and really by 2018-19, the true-crime podcast market was just bombarded with so many new shows,” says John Bailey, a Jellico native who remains a lifelong Vols fan even though he now lives in Berea, Kentucky, where he co-hosts True Crimecast with his next-door neighbor Jamie Boggs.
“I have found the key to success is being consistent,” Bailey adds. “And in those eight years, we have never missed a week, that we’ve always released an episode. No matter if we’re on vacation or what, we work hard to always put out new content.”
Adds Boggs: “I think what makes podcasting in general so appealing is there’s no safeguarding, no networks that are keeping people out of the industry. People have a voice. They let it be heard and then the audience decides whether it’s valuable or not, whether they should continue or not. So the success is based on the talent and the need for what’s being said.”
Heather Ashley, host of Big Mad True Crime in Richmond, Virginia, suggests the podcast explosion is “because people are busy. People want to learn and they want to advocate. The true-crime community is just full of people with huge hearts and they want to love somebody they’ve never met.
“They want to advocate for somebody they’ve never met, but they also want to be able to do it while they’re living their life because times get hard and we’re juggling kids, we’re juggling jobs, we’re driving to work, and so I think it’s this way to kind of get in something for yourself while you’re doing things for other people.”